Intellectual property law is good. Excess in intellectual property law is not. This blog is about excess in Canadian and international copyright law, trademarks law and patent law. I practice IP law with Macera & Jarzyna, LLP in Ottawa, Canada. I've also been in government and academe. My views are purely personal and don't necessarily reflect those of my firm or any of its clients. Nothing on this blog should be taken as legal advice.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

CMPDA rebrands to Motion Picture Association - Canada (MPAC)

A vigilant reader has pointed out that I missed another major name change in my post yesterday about CRIA’s change to MUSIC CANADA.

The Motion Picture Association – Canada serves as the voice and advocate of the major international producers and distributors of movies, home entertainment and television programming in Canada. The motion picture studios served by the Motion Picture Association – Canada are:

To its credit, The Motion Picture Association – Canada is not seeking to convey the impression that its mission is to protect the interests of Canadian producers and distributors. In fact, its new website states that it is “The Voice and Advocate for the Major International Producers and Distributors of Movies, Home Entertainment and TV Programming in Canada”.

This should clear everything up: The Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association, which has long lobbied north of the border on behalf of the major Hollywood studios, has changed its name to Motion Picture Association - Canada (MPAC).

The rebranding aligns the association more closely with its parent, the Motion Pictures Association of America.

As this article indicates, the acronym of the Motion Picture Association - Canada is MPAC. This acronym may also be familiar to Ontario real property owners who believe that their municipal tax assessment is too high and who have had the pleasure of appealing to the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), the URL of which is www.mpac.ca.

The URL for the Motion Picture Association - Canada (MPAC) is www.mpa-canada.org.